Baseball History – The Most Exclusive Clubs in the Major League Baseball

 Baseball History  No Responses »
May 232012
 

The 20-20-20 Club

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 20–20–20 club refers to a group of

Frank Schulte

players who have collected at least 20 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 home runs in a single season. In 1911, Frank Schulte (30, 21, 23, 21) became the first member of the club. In total, only seven players have reached the 20–20–20 club in MLB history.

The last time this feat was accomplished was 2007.

Yankee Center Fielder Curtis Granderson

Curtis Granderson (38, 23, 23) and Jimmy Rollins (38, 20, 41, 30) are the most recent players to reach the milestone. This was the first time that two players accomplished the feat in the same season.

Five of the members are left-handed batters,

Hall of Famer - George Brett

1 is right-handed and 1 is a switch hitter, Two of these players (and one of the two active members of the 20–20–20 club) have played for only one major league team. Two players—George Brett (42, 20, 23, 3,154) and Willie Mays (26, 20, 38, 35, 3,283) are also members of the 3,000 hit club. Mays is also a member of the 500 home run club (660). Frank Schulte, Jim Bottomley (42, 20, 31) and Jimmy Rollins won the MVP Award in the same year as their 20–

Phillies Second Baseman Jimmy Rollins

20–20 season. Both Mays and Rollins also reached the 30–30 club in the same season. Brett and Rollins collected more than 200 hits alongside achieving 20–20–20. The seventh member is Jeff Heath (32, 20, 24) with the Cleveland Indians in 1941. 20 stolen bases

Jeff Heath Indians

In major league history, there have been a lot of players who have hit 20 doubles and 20 home runs in a year. It is the addition of triples that makes the 20–20–20 club so difficult to achieve. In order to hit a lot of triples a player needs to be able to hit for power and have the speed to stretch a double into a triple.

Brett is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average. The other three are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial.

Willie Mays reached both the 20–20–20 club and the 30–30 club, which has 12 members, during the 1957 season. He was the only player to reach both marks until Rollins joined him in 2007. There is also a 40-40 club, which has only 4 members.

The 20-20-20-20 Club

When Granderson and Rollins joined the 20-20-20 club, they also joined the even rarer 20-20-20-20 Club. Willie Mays and Frank “Wildfire” Schulte are the only other players in major league history to add 20+ stolen bases to the other three milestones.


Baseball History – Topps Lost Cards

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Mar 212012
 

2011 Topps Lost Cards Set

As part of 2011 baseball, Topps issued the “Lost Cards” set, which includes some of the cards that Topps didn’t produce, for one reason or another, during the years 1953-1957. The list of ten only includes six names: Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Duke Snider, Bob Feller and Roy Campanella. All but two of the omissions resulted from the contract wars between Topps and Bowman up through their 1955 sets. The other two cards resulted from Stan Musial’s non-appearance in the ’56 and ’57 sets. In fact, four of the cards in the set are Musial cards. Here are the cards in Topps Lost Cards Set:

1-53 Musial # 275          2-53 Snider # 253

3-54 Mantle # 250         4-54 Campy # 252

5-55 Musial # 175          6-55 Ford # 186

7-55 Feller # 203            8-55 Mantle # 211

9-56 Musial #341           10-57 Musial # 408

Topps 1953 Missing Cards

In 1953 Stan Musial was at the peak of his career. He won his 6thbatting title

Stan Musial 1953 Topps

with a .336 average. Musial had an exclusive contract with Bowman, so Topps was unable to produce a card for him and several other stars.

In 1953, Duke Snider, nicknamed “The Silver Fox”, was just

Duke Snider 1953 Topps Lost Cards

becoming a superstar. He hit 42 home runs, but because of litigation between Topps and Bowman Snider wasn’t included in the Topps ’53 set. There were six cards, #’s 253, 261, 267, 268, 271 and 275 that were not in the set. No one knows for sure, but one of those might have been for Duke.

Topps 1954 Missing Cards

The 1954 Topps set excluded many of the top players including Stan Musial (would not sign with Topps until 1959), Mickey Mantle and Roy Campanella. The ’54 Mantle and Campanella cards are part of the Topps Lost Cards set.

Mickey Mantle 1955 Topps Lost Card

Mickey Mantle appeared in the 1952 and 1953 Topps sets, but not in ’54 and

Mickey Mantle 1954 Topps Lost Cards

’55. Apparently, it had to do with litigation with the Bowman Company that prevented his inclusion.

By 1954 Roy Campanella was one of the premier players in

Roy Campanella 1954 Topps Lost Cards

baseball. He had already won two MVP awards. Like Mantle, Campanella was on the Topps ’52 and ’53 sets, but left off the ’54 and ’55 sets, presumably due to a rights dispute.

Topps 1955 Missing Cards

In 1955, Stan Musial hit .300 for the 13thconsecutive season. However, he was not included in the 1955 Topps set. There were four cards #175,

Stan Musial 1955 Topps Lost Card

#186, #203 and #209, but there is no official record of which players would have appeared, it is a safe bet that Musial would have been one of them.

By 1955 Bob Feller was past his prime, but he had established himself as one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He had been included in both the first Topps

Bob Feller 1955 Topps Lost Cards

set in ’52 and again in ’53. For whatever reason he wasn’t in the ’54 and ’55 sets, but made his final appearance in 1956 with card number 200.

Whitey Ford 1955 Topps Lost Cards

In 1955 Whitey Ford was another victim of the litigation between Topps and Bowman. His card was not part of the ’55 set. It was the only set between 1953 and 1967 that he wasn’t included.

Topps 1956 Missing Card

Musial did not appear in the 1956 Topps set, even

Stan Musial 1956 Topps Lost Cards

though the company had bought the picture rights from competitor Bowman in January of that year. This meant that star players would no longer be excluded from the set due to litigation.

Topps 1957 Missing Card

In 1957, Musial hit .351 to win his 7thbatting title, but he did not appear on a baseball card.

Stan Musial 1957 Topps Lost Cards1957

Even though Topps owned the picture rights to every player by this time, Musial declined to accept the standard fee and as a result still had never been included in a Topps set. He made his debut the next year as a SPORT magazine All-Star Selection, card #476.

 

Baseball History – The Story Behind the 1954 Bowman Card Number 66

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Jan 182012
 

Ted Williams Classic Swing

Hall of Fame Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams’ career lasted 19 seasons from 1939 to 1960. He didn’t play in 1943, 44 and 45 because of the war. He didn’t have a Topps baseball card until 1954. Prior to that the man known as “Teddy Ballgame” was under an exclusive agreement with the Bowman card company through 1953.

The Pioneers of Baseball Trading Cards

The Bowman Company, like Topps and Fleer, began its life as a bubblegum maker going by the name Gum, Inc. They produced the Play Ball sets from 1939 to 1941. These were sets filled with various rookies, stars, and Hall of

1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle Rookie Card

Famers. They stopped production due to the war, and resumed in 1948 under the Bowman name. Bowman printed cards from 1951 to 1955. Probably the single greatest early Bowman Card is the 1951 Mickey Mantle rookie card, though it is not as widely regarded as the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card. In 2001 a Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) Near Mint-Mint 8 1952 Topps Mantle broke new ground with a final bid of $57,560 making it the highest price every paid for a 1952 Topps Mantle in NM-MT condition at that time. A 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle PSA 8 NM-MT sold for a staggering $72,056! in 2006.

The 1954 Bowman Set

During the first half of the 1950’s competition between Bowman and Topps was intense that Bowman in its haste to get the 1954 set printed made several statistical errors on some cards. Variations exist in this set because the statistical errors that were eventually corrected.

1954 Bowman Ted Williams

In addition, they started printing a Ted Williams card (#66) before they realized that Williams had signed a contract with Topps. As a result, Bowman had to pull the card early in the print run. Bowman had been the leading producer of baseball cards until Topps entered the market in 1951. For several years, the two competitors fought hard against one another by signing players to exclusive contracts.

The 1954 Bowman Baseball card set consisted of 224 cards that measure 2 ½” by 3 ¾”. The front is a color photo of the player with a colored box containing an autograph. Backs are numbered and have the player’s bio and stats. When Bowman pulled the #66 Ted Williams card it was replaced with a Jim Piersall card, making the Ted Williams #66 card extremely rare and valuable.

Bowman eventually ceased operation in 1955 and was bought by Topps in 1956. Topps re-introduced the Bowman brand in 1989 with the idea that the set would be the ‘Home of the Rookie Card.’

Ted Williams Was Now With Topps

With Williams under contract in 1954, Topps decided to have Williams be on the

1954 Topps Ted Williams #1

first (#1) and last card (#250) in the set. This is the only time a player has ever had this honor. Williams would end up being on Topps cards from 1954 through 1958.

1954 Topps Ted Williams #250

Topps recently selected the 60 greatest cards of all time. Williams has four of his five Topps cards on that list (1954, #250 (7), 1955 (34), 1956 (47) and 1957 (25)).

 

Baseball History – Baseball Firsts

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Nov 072011
 

As I do research for my blog posts I come across interesting bits of baseball trivia. One of the great things about baseball is its history. There so many stories to be told. Below are a few baseball firsts that you may or may not be aware of.

1901 Chicago White Sox

The New American League

The Chicago White Sox won the first American League game played in history. On April 24, 1901, it didn’t look good for the league’s debut. With four games scheduled, three were rained out. Chicago defeated Cleveland 8-2, with pitcher Roy Patterson getting the first win. The White Sox name was adopted only 10 days prior to the start of the season. Newspapers complained that they could not get the name ‘Chicago White Stockings’ on one line for a headline. The White Stockings name was the very first pro team in Chicago in the mid-1800s.

The Cubs in the World Series

Joe Tinker who was mostly known for being a part of a famous double-play combination hit the first Chicago Cub home run in a World Series. Tinker’s two-run shot came in game two of the 1908 World Series against the Tigers.

Joe Tinker

The Cubs won the game 6-1, then the series four games to one. Tinker is perhaps best known for the “Tinker to Evers to Chance” double play combination in the poem “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” written by the New York Evening Mail newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams in July 1910. Tinker was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.

Extra, Extra, Extra

Babe Ruth in 1921

Babe Ruth was the first player in Major League history to slug over 100 extra base hits in one season. Ruth had 119 extra base hits in 1921 with the Yankees. He had 44 doubles, 16 triples and 59 home runs. The number that surprises me the most is the 16 triples. Ruth just missed 100 three other times with 99 (’20), 99 (’23) and 97 (’27). Since then, fourteen other players have compiled at least 100 extra base hits. The last time was in 2001 when four players reached or exceeded the century mark in extra base hits.

The Most Valuable Player

Jimmie Foxx was the first player in history to win three season MVP Awards. Foxx won two with

Jimmie Foxx

the Athletics in 1932 and 1933. His third came with the Boston Red Sox in 1938. He almost had his fourth in 1940, but finished runner-up to Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees. Barry Bonds has won the most MVP awards with seven. He won four in a row from 2001 to 2004.

A Dominating Lefty

Sandy Koufax was the first pitcher to throw four no-hitters, and they were all in a four-year span. His last one was a perfect game. Koufax of the Dodgers accomplished this from 1962-

Sandy Koufax

1965. He retired in 1966 at the age of 31 with elbow problems. Even so, he went 27-9 with a 1.76 ERA in that final season and won his third Cy Young Award. He finish his shorten career 165-87 record and a 2.76 ERA

The Hits King

Pete Rose was the first switch-hitter in the National League to win a batting title. Rose, a National League switch-hitter won his in 1968 with the ‘Big Red Machine’ of

Pete Rose

Cincinnati. Rose batted .335 and finished .003 points above Pittsburgh’s Matty Alou for the title, and .018 ahead of brother Felipe of Atlanta who finished third. Rose also finished second in the MVP voting in 1968 to pitcher Bob Gibson of the Cardinals. Mickey Mantle was the first American Leaguer to win a batting title in 1956.

Clemens in Better Times

In 2001, Roger Clemens was the first pitcher in Major League history to win 20 games and

Roger Clemens

have only one loss in the season. Clemens ended up going 20-3 in his 2001 Yankee season. For his efforts, he was awarded his sixth Cy Young Award.

A Great Beginning

On August 23, 2001, Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings threw a shutout and hit a home run in his first Major League game. This was the first time in 100 years for this to happen. He appeared in seven games

Jason Jennings

with a 4-1 record. Jason went 4-for-15 with a double and home run, batting .267 for the season. In 2002, Jennings was 16-8 and batted .306. However, he never had another winning season, retiring in 2009 with a 62-74 career record.

 

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